Consciousness & Thought Books - Page 12

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Popular Science)

Roger Penrose

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Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For decades, proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do. Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do they understand the game as we do? Can a computer eventually do everything a human mind can do?
In this absorbing and frequently contentious book, Roger Penrose--eminent physicist and winner, with Stephen Hawking, of the prestigious Wolf prize--puts forward his view that there are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Penrose examines what physics and mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and what we need to know to understand the physical processes of consciousness.
He is among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being stubborn when he said his "little finger" told him that quantum mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support this contention, Penrose takes the reader on a dazzling tour that covers such topics as complex numbers, Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, formal systems, Godel undecidability, phase spaces, Hilbert spaces, black holes, white holes, Hawking radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, the structure of the brain, and scores of other subjects.
The Emperor's New Mind will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in modern physics and its relation to philosophical issues, as well as to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers and those on either side of the AI debate.

Waiting for God (Perennial Classics)

Simone Weil

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Showing Its Age, and Mine! 3 out of 5 stars.
39 of 63 people found this review helpful.

Twenty-five years ago, I would have called this book one of the great religious volumes of the twentieth century. Now, instad of profound, I find it precious and peculiar.

Weil's attempted life of sacrifice, coupled with her willingness to be rescued by her rich parents each time the sacrifices seem to go too far, seem like the stuff of spiritual soap opera, not great religious vision. Her solidarity with the poor and the working class, while well-meaing, is ultimately a failure, and her attempt to teach the Upanishads to factory workers seems like comedy of the absurd.

Her religious writing is not much different. Full of extremes, and paradoxes, and sometimes unnecessary verbosity, she strives for solidarity with a world of which, as she clearly states, she can never be fully a part. This, to me, now seems a peculiar act of self-loathing, and her anorexia is only further confirmation of this point.

Perhaps she is pointing the way of how not to be a saint. Anyhow, the reading is engaging. Leslie Fiedler's introduction, now 50 years old, shows its age, and as a religious commentator, he was frankly unqualified to begin with.

So read it for the peculiar period piece that it is, and for the example of a flawed, yet highly dedicated life.

Editorial Review:

Emerging from thought-provoking discussions and correspondence Simone Weil had with the Reverend Father Perrin, this classic collection of essays contains her most profound meditations on the relationship of human life to the realm of the transcendant. An enlightening introduction by Leslie Fiedler examines Weil's extraordinary roles as a philosophy teacher turned mystic. "One of the most neglected resources of our century ", Waiting for God will continue to influence spiritual and political thought for centuries to come.

Listening

Jean-Luc Nancy

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this lyrical meditation on listening, Jean-Luc Nancy examines sound in relation to the human body. How is listening different from hearing? What does listening entail? How does what is heard differ from what is seen? Can philosophy even address listening, écouter, as opposed to entendre, which means both hearing and understanding?Unlike the visual arts, sound produces effects that persist long after it has stopped. The body, Nancy says, is itself like an echo chamber, responding to music by inner vibrations as well as outer attentiveness. Since “the ear has no eyelid” (Quignard), sound cannot be blocked out or ignored: our whole being is involved in listening, just as it is involved in interpreting what it hears.The mystery of music and of its effects on the listener is subtly examined. Nancy’s skill as a philosopher is to bring the reader companionably along with him as he examines these fresh and vital questions; by the end of the book the reader feels as if listening very carefully to a person talking quietly, close to the ear.

LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited

Jerry Fodor

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Editorial Review:

Jerry Fodor presents a new development of his famous Language of Thought hypothesis, which has since the 1970s been at the centre of interdisciplinary debate about how the mind works. Fodor defends and extends the groundbreaking idea that thinking is couched in a symbolic system realized in the brain. This idea is central to the representational theory of mind which Fodor has established as a key reference point in modern philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. The foundation stone of our present cognitive science is Turing's suggestion that cognitive processes are not associations but computations; and computation requires a language of thought.
So the latest on the Language of Thought hypothesis, from its progenitor, promises to be a landmark in the study of the mind. LOT 2 offers a more cogent presentation and a fuller explication of Fodor's distinctive account of the mind, with various intriguing new features. The central role of compositionality in the representational theory of mind is revealed: most of what we know about concepts follows from the compositionality of thoughts. Fodor shows the necessity of a referentialist account of the content of intentional states, and of an atomistic account of the individuation of concepts. Not least among the new developments is Fodor's identification and persecution of pragmatism as the leading source of error in the study of the mind today.
LOT 2 sees Fodor advance undaunted towards the ultimate goal of a theory of the cognitive mind, and in particular a theory of the intentionality of cognition. No one who works on the mind can ignore Fodor's views, expressed in the coruscating and provocative style which has delighted and disconcerted countless readers over the years.

Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life in School, but Didn't

John-Roger McWilliams, Peter McWilliams

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life in School --But Didn't 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is an easy to read book full of fun quotes and profound wisdom. It tells us a lot about ourselves and guides us in dealing with the world and others. I have read it twice and have enjoyed the audio tapes when on a trip. It's a real upper.

Great book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I first read this book in high school. Since then I've read the book 2 or 3 times and have learned something new each time I read it. It puts forth a great philosophy on life that has had a huge impact on my life.
One note to readers is that the book takes a long time to set everything up. I'd advise anyone reading it to stay patient for the first 100 pages. It'll be worth it in the end.

The best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Want to make a change in your life and you don't know quite how ? Buy this book and read it, chapter after chapter, leaving about a week between each to ponder and let it sink in. It'll do you and the rest of the world a lot of good.

Awesome book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I absolutely love this book. I got it about 15 years ago when it first came out. It's a book that talks about personal growth, and about improving yourself mentally and spiritually. It teaches you to overcome obstacles, gives you inner peace of mind, and tries to instill a positive attitude for living life. It's all over the map - it talks about all sorts of stuff in a fun way without being too "serious" about itself. There are tons of uplifting and insightful quotes throughout the book, and the chapters are highly educational, inspirational, and eye openers. They are written in a non-lecture way with relative short easy to read chapters.

Highly recommended if you are the type that desires constant self improvement, are willing to try new things, and want to have a positive outlook on life. It's also quite a philosophical and spiritual book (without advocating any particular religion). The world would be better off if people followed the book's advice. The book is non-judgmental so use the parts that help you, and you don't have to use the parts that don't.

I just "found" the book again, and I am re-reading some of the chapters. Great stuff. I am reminded of how good it was.

You can see if you like the book by checking out the free online version. Just do a search for the author's name on a search engine.

Becoming Human

Jean Vanier

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Harder than it needs to be 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Vanier mixes timeless truth with a dash of storytelling in this quick read, reaching back into his earliest experiences with the mentally disabled for examples on `becoming human.'

He argues that manifestations of weakness should not be avoided out of ignorance: Now-vigorous people often shun those less fortunate than themselves in the mistaken belief their places will never be reversed. By accepting weakness, however, and by embracing it, such individuals come closer to understanding what it really means to be human.

This work is based upon a series of talks Vanier gave through CBC radio, as well as several lectures he conducted at the University of Toronto. The resulting notes and transcripts were brought together in a single manuscript, which Vanier did little to edit. Instead, he merely added small blocks of text to ease the transition from one thought to another.

As a consequence, the book is given to redundancy in areas where the lecture notes and CBC transcripts probably overlap. These raw text dumps are so distracting they detract from the book's message; and the material, though offered up in thematic chapters, doesn't have any real sense of order.

The author would have done better to rewrite this book based upon his notes, rather than borrowing directly from them. In that way, he could have formed better links between each topic, while at the same time weeding out any glaring repetition.

Editorial Review:

In this provocative work, Jean Vanier shares his profoundly human vision for creating a common good that radically changes our communities, our relationships, and ourselves. He proposes that by opening ourselves to outsiders, those that we perceive as weak, different, or inferior, we can achieve pure personal and societal freedom.

Our society shuns weakness and glorifies strength. By embracing weakness, however, we learn new ways of living and discover greater compassion, trust and understanding. This spirit of inclusion has extraordinary implications for the we live our lives and build our communities.

Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer (The Frontiers Collection)

Henry P. Stapp

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Modern Physics Explained for Human Beings 5 out of 5 stars.
36 of 36 people found this review helpful.

"Mindful Universe" by Henry Stapp begins with the sentences, "This book concerns your nature as a human being. It is about the connection of your mind to your body."

When I first read that I thought, "Oh, sure, what would a physicist know about that?" I read the book anyway, and I'm glad I did. It is without a doubt the best, most comprehensible, most useful book about modern physics I've ever read.

First Stapp lays out the basic discoveries and their ramifications that led to the overthrow of 'classical physics' in a way that is easily understood. He then goes into the 'orthodox interpretation' of modern physics as laid out by von Neumann and others. This has provided me with an understanding of modern physics that is both intuitive and actually useful to my everyday life.

Stapp has managed to do something amazing -- he teaches us what modern physics really says about the nature of the universe and our role in it, without dumbing it down and without the jargon and mathematics that make so many of the other books I've read so difficult. And what modern science really says is very different to what most books and mass-media articles present. Be ready for a reality shift.

In Chapter 6 "The Effectiveness of Conscious Will and the Quantum Zeno Effect" Stapp explains how this modern physics applies to the mind-brain connection in a way that fits well with experience. I've never understood modern physics like that.

The last sentence of the chapter "Conclusions" is, "The falseness of that deviation of science (the classical ideal of a mechanical universe) must be made known, and heralded, because human beings are not likely to endure in a society ruled by a conception of themselves that denies the essence of their being."

I would like to say this: Stapp makes good on the promise of the first sentence of the book and I understand and agree with the last. Fantastic book.

Editorial Review:

The classical mechanistic idea of nature that prevailed in science during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was an essentially mindless conception: the physically described aspects of nature were asserted to be completely determined by prior physically described aspects alone, with our conscious experiences entering only passively. During the twentieth century the classical concepts were found to be inadequate. In the new theory, quantum mechanics, our conscious experiences enter into the dynamics in specified ways not fixed by the physically described aspects alone. Consequences of this radical change in our understanding of the connection between mind and brain are described.

 

A Simpler Way

Margaret J Wheatley, Myron Kellner-Rogers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Simpler way to absorb ideas from Leadership and the New Science 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Margaret Wheatley is addictive. After reading "Leadership and the New Science" I have bought the rest of her books, and also those that she recommends by contributing a foreword.

This book has a great deal of white space, lots of photos, is double-spaced, but by no means is it simplistic. To play on the title, it is a "simpler way" to absorb the large deep ideas that are documented in "Leadership and the New Science." If her primary writing were a trilogy, this is the entry-level book, "Finding Our Way" is the intermediate volume, and "Leadership" is the graduate course. However, I recommend they be read in reverse order, because the simpler books are more clearly appreciated if one has the deeper background.

What I find most compelling about this book is the manner in which it captures core ideas from a wide variety of works that have been bubbling into human consciousness in the past 20 years. The bibliography is quite good although by no means all-inclusive (missing Kurzweil, E. O. Wilson, and Stephen Wolfham, as well as Tom Atlee and Bill Moyers, among others).

Among the core ideas in this book that are presented with elegance are the absurdity of thinking that life can have a boss--or that rigid ideas and identities will lead to anything other than rigid non-adjustable organizations. The author stresses the value of diversity, passion, connectedness, humanity and humanness, and tieing it all together, the role of information and of ethics as facilitators for "being."

There is a very useful discussion of bacteria and the manner in which human attempts to impose machine and medical solutions are ultimately defeated by bacteria. Although Howard Bloom's "Global Brain" is not in the bibliography, everything the authors discuss here is consistent with his concerns about bacteria winning the inter-species war with humanity.

Taking this a step further, I would contrast this book, and the varied books on collective intelligence, wisdom of the crowd, ecological economics (Herman Daly) and so on, with a book I recently reviewed about the National Security Council, aptly titled "Running the World." The stupidity and arrogance of that title reveals all that we need to know about why U.S. foreign policy is failing, and how desperately we need to take the ideas from this book and apply them to how we manage ourselves and our relationships with other nations, other tribes, other religions, other communities.

Editorial Review:

Constructed around five major themes -- play, organization, self, emergence, and coherence -- A Simpler Way challenges the way we live and work, presenting a profound worldview.

In thoughtful, creative prose, the authors help readers connect their own personal experiences to the idea that organizations are evolving systems. With its relaxed, poetic style, A Simpler Way will help readers increase their organizing capacity and free them from the daily stress that disorganization brings.

A Simpler Way

Margaret J Wheatley, Myron Kellner-Rogers

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $2.47

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Simpler way to absorb ideas from Leadership and the New Science 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Margaret Wheatley is addictive. After reading "Leadership and the New Science" I have bought the rest of her books, and also those that she recommends by contributing a foreword.

This book has a great deal of white space, lots of photos, is double-spaced, but by no means is it simplistic. To play on the title, it is a "simpler way" to absorb the large deep ideas that are documented in "Leadership and the New Science." If her primary writing were a trilogy, this is the entry-level book, "Finding Our Way" is the intermediate volume, and "Leadership" is the graduate course. However, I recommend they be read in reverse order, because the simpler books are more clearly appreciated if one has the deeper background.

What I find most compelling about this book is the manner in which it captures core ideas from a wide variety of works that have been bubbling into human consciousness in the past 20 years. The bibliography is quite good although by no means all-inclusive (missing Kurzweil, E. O. Wilson, and Stephen Wolfham, as well as Tom Atlee and Bill Moyers, among others).

Among the core ideas in this book that are presented with elegance are the absurdity of thinking that life can have a boss--or that rigid ideas and identities will lead to anything other than rigid non-adjustable organizations. The author stresses the value of diversity, passion, connectedness, humanity and humanness, and tieing it all together, the role of information and of ethics as facilitators for "being."

There is a very useful discussion of bacteria and the manner in which human attempts to impose machine and medical solutions are ultimately defeated by bacteria. Although Howard Bloom's "Global Brain" is not in the bibliography, everything the authors discuss here is consistent with his concerns about bacteria winning the inter-species war with humanity.

Taking this a step further, I would contrast this book, and the varied books on collective intelligence, wisdom of the crowd, ecological economics (Herman Daly) and so on, with a book I recently reviewed about the National Security Council, aptly titled "Running the World." The stupidity and arrogance of that title reveals all that we need to know about why U.S. foreign policy is failing, and how desperately we need to take the ideas from this book and apply them to how we manage ourselves and our relationships with other nations, other tribes, other religions, other communities.

Editorial Review:

Constructed around five major themes -- play, organization, self, emergence, and coherence -- A Simpler Way challenges the way we live and work, presenting a profound worldview.

In thoughtful, creative prose, the authors help readers connect their own personal experiences to the idea that organizations are evolving systems. With its relaxed, poetic style, A Simpler Way will help readers increase their organizing capacity and free them from the daily stress that disorganization brings.